Mom's 1953 Europe Road Trip: Ferry from Dover, England, to Bruges, Belgium

From Mom's Europe trip diary, in the "PLACES VISITED" section:

August 29, Saturday – Road between Canterbury, England and Bruges, Belgium

Drove into Dover [England] and tried to locate American Express man--he didn't arrive before 10:10 so had to leave--left forwarding address.  Made arrangements for passage to Ostend [Belgium]--cost £16 3d for car and us.  Had dinner on boat*--food good--things looking up.  Arrived at Ostend--got through customs without their checking luggage again, and drove to Bruges.  Found room in a hotel without a bath for $3 for all three.**  Walked around town a little bit--finally ate at a cafe at the Hotel de Londres where food was very good.  Service exceptional.  Lights went off for 45 minutes in whole town.***

* The ferry was probably the Prinses Josephine Charlotte (II) of the Belgian ferry operators Regie voor Maritiem Transport (RMT).  The ferry service quit operating a few years after the Channel Tunnel between Dover, England, and Calais, France opened in 1994.

** According to the "HOTELS STOPPED AT" section of the trip diary, my mother spent this night at the Hotel Roode Leeuw in Bruges, Belgium.

***My mother mentioned this again in the "INCIDENTS" section of the trip diary:

In Bruges, whole town's lights went off for 45 minutes.  Quite strange--thought an air raid or something.

No copyright friendly images available for this post either, so here is another map, of the approximate route from Chichester, England, to Bruges, Belgium:

This is the 22nd in a series of posts about my mother's 1953 Europe Trip.

© Amanda Pape - 2014 - click here to e-mail me.